Effect of foliar and soil application of phosphorus on phosphorus uptake, use efficiency and wheat grain yield in calcareous soil

Abstract

Foliar fertilization is a widely used practice to correct nutritional deficiencies in plants caused by improper supply of nutrients to roots. Most of the important agricultural soils in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia suffer from severe P deficiency. This is attributed to the high soil pH due to the presence of calcium carbonate. Under such conditions, the utilization by plants of fertilizer P is generally very low due to sorption of P by soils. The objectives of this study were to determine the response of wheat to four levels of foliar P application (0, 3, 6 and 12 kg P ha-1) under various levels of soil P application rates (0, 150 and 450 DAP ha-1) on P concentrations, soil available P and wheat yield cultivated in calcareous soil. Foliar P fertilizer was applied at Feekes growth stage 7 (two nodes detectable) and Feekes 10.5 (flowering completed). The results suggested that application of 150 kg DAP ha-1 is quite enough to achieve the highest wheat grain yield under the current experiment. Results revealed that foliar application of P at Feekes physiological growth stage 7 generally increased wheat grain yield and P uptake versus no foliar. Results confirmed the beneficial effect of foliar P fertilization especially in the absence of soil P fertilizer application. Soil available P values obtained at the end of growing period increased significantly with increasing rates of added P. Thus, application of P fertilizer by foliar along with medium rates of soil P fertilizer may contribute to improve P fertilizer efficiency and increase wheat grain yield in calcareous soil. © 2013 Asian Network for Scientific Information.